A Quest of Fate
by eternalglory
Summary: Born a lady, Yvera never imagined that at the age of 18 she'd be caught in the war between the Imperials and Stormcloaks. Escaping from an arranged marriage she seeks shelter in the cold land of Skyrim. Accompanied by her close friend Rourke, they begin the long battle of survival. (terrible summary, rated M for violence in later chapters)
1. Prologue

Repulsive, is what I would use to describe my husband-to-be. I could not believe my parents had arranged to have me marry such a horrible man. He was fat, ugly, and totally bereft of any manners. I knew I could never love him. I have trouble just letting him touch me. Many nights I have cried myself to sleep, knowing I will never be able to escape this soon to be nightmare.

The day of the wedding has arrived. I dread leaving the comfort of my bed. My room is dark, only lit by a few candles. I hear a knock at the door. "Yvera?" I hear my mother call out. She opens the door. "Yvera, it is time to rise." She opens my curtains. I am blinded by sun's rays shining right into my face.

"Moth-" I begin to protest when I am interrupted by three of our many house servants rushing into my room, carrying my wedding outfit.

"Milady, we've brought the items you've asked for." Mari said to my mother. Mari was my favorite of our servants. I never tried to treat her as if she was a servant for me. She was like a sister to me.

"Thank you Mari," my mother said emotionless. She never showed compassion towards our servants. "Yvera, out of bed. NOW!" she snapped. I quickly arose from my bed and walked over to my mother. "Mari, draw a bath."

"Yes milady." Mari said. She ran over to the silver tub in the adjacent room. I heard her begin to place water into the tub. Mari walks out timidly. "The bath is full milady." She says quietly.

"Thank you, you may go." My mother says. Mari curtsied before leaving my bedroom.

Without a word to my mother I walk over to the tub and remove my night dress. I dip my feet in first into the cold water. I sit down in the tub. The water goes up to my neck; I sink into water even more to cover my mouth. She grabs the soap and begins to wash out my long, black hair.

"He is a suitable husband for you Yvera, very handsome." My mother says. "He seems to have a strong attraction to you." She rinses out my hair.

_But I will never love him,_ I think as I let out a long sigh. _How could she do this to me?_

"Yvera, please don't do anything rash. We need this to go right." My mother said.

"We? We need this to go right? NO! You need this to go right! You're just mad because you were forced to marry father now you want to put me through your pain!" I shout.

My head snapped to the right as my mother slapped my cheek. The burning sensation grew from the center of my cheek out to the underside of my eye to my jaw line. I kept my head down to avoid angering my mother even more.

"How dare you speak to me with that tone!" my mother yells. She stands and walks to my door way. "I am leaving, I will be back soon to help you dress."

"Yes, mother." I say quietly. She walks out.

I jump out of my bath and over to my wardrobe. I grab the first robe I see and put it on. I grab my knapsack from under my bed. It was full of clothes, bread, fruit, and my water pouch. I threw it onto my back. I slipped on a pair of boots and ran to my door. Looking out the door I look to the left, no one; I looked to the right, no one. I ran down the staircase praying to the Divines that my mother or father would not appear. I successfully made it down the staircase and dart to the door that lead to the stables.

"Yvera is being difficult; I don't know what I am to do with her." I hear my mother's voice. I closed the door quickly behind me. "She won't marry him!"

"Lára, calm down." I hear my father's voice trying to soothe my mother.

I continued my way towards the stables when Rourke, the stable boy, appeared. I jumped back, startled. His shaggy, brown hair hung in front of his green eyes. As he saw me his face lit up and a smile appeared on his dirty face.

"Yvera, what are you doing out here?" he asked. "Aren't you getting married today?"

"I'm leaving. I can't marry him." I say. "Bring me my horse."

"But-" he starts to talk.

"Bring me my horse!" I demand. He backed away quickly. He disappeared for a minute before coming back with my mare, Alia. She is a solid black horse with a white stripe on her face. I jump onto her back and get settled into the saddle.

"Where are you going?" Rourke asked softly.

"Away from here." I say.

"I'm coming with you." He says bluntly.

"Wh-what?" I stuttered.

"I said I'm coming with you. You can't go out there alone." He said. He ran behind the stables. The sound of metal clanking grew loud. He ran back carrying one of the practice swords. "This was all I could find." He said softly.

"It's fine. We need to hurry." I said in a panic.

He jumped onto Alia behind me. I kicked the sides of my horse leading her into a gallop. We made it out of the city in a matter of minutes. We traveled to the west. By midday we stopped to rest. He dismounted first and helped me down. I took my knapsack off and pulled out half of a loaf of bread. I ripped it in half and gave a piece to Rourke. He smiled in appreciation.

"So why are you running away again?" he asked as he bit a chunk of his bread off and began chewing.

"The arranged marriage, I couldn't go through with it." I say quietly.

"Understandable reason," he chuckles. "He was quite rude to me."

I let out a sigh and began to nibble on my bread. The bushes around us began to rustle. I looked around in a panic.

"Calm down, it's probably just a rabbit or a fox." Rourke said, trying to calm me. His eyes widened in shock. "Yvera! Lo-" a man came up behind him and hit on the back of the neck. He was knocked out immediately. I turned around to see another man behind me. He rose up a blunt weapon. Everything went black. By the time I came to, it was well beyond night fall. My bag was gone, along with my horse, and my robe. I was lying on the ground in rags.

"Yvera?" I hear a man call out. "Yvera, are you ok?" The voice grows louder as he gets closer to me.

"Who's there?" I call out in a worry.

"Yvera, it's me, Rourke." He said.

"I don't know who you are. How do you know me?!" I shout.

"Yvera, we grew up together. I'm your friend." I see the shadow of his hand reach out to me. I lean away from him.

"I don't know you. Get away!" I begin to cry. I feel strong arms wrap around me.

"Calm down," he pulls me closer to him. "Everything will be alright. I promise." He said as he rubs his hand across my back soothingly.

"What happened?" I ask softly.

"We were attacked, they knocked us both out. They took everything." He let out a long sigh.

"What are we going to do? We have nothing! We're going to die out here!" I begin to panic.

"We will be fine, you just have to trust me." He said sternly.

I looked him in the eye. For some strange reason I began to trust him. "Look, I don't know who you are, nor do I know where I'm from, but we need to get somewhere safe." I said.

"We'll leave at the break of dawn." He said calmly. "I'll stay up to make sure you're ok. I promise I won't let anything happen to you."

I settled into his arms and fell asleep quickly. I awoke to being shook by Rourke.

"It's time to wake up," he said softly. "Don't want to be around for anymore bandits to show up." He stood up first and then helped me to my feet. "We need to be heading west."

"Why? What's to the west?" I asked.

"Skyrim."


	2. Unbound

Black. Everything was black. As I began to open my eyes everything was fuzzy. I could not see properly. I heard sound of hooves hitting stone. Whatever I was sitting on was hard and stiff. My hands sat in front of me in my lap. There was something holding them together. My vision began to become clear. There were bindings holding my hands together. The weather was cold. I began to shiver.

"Hey, you. You're finally awake." I heard a deep voice ask. He had a thick accent. I looked up and in front of me sat a man with blond hair that went to his shoulders. His blue eyes stared in my direction. "You were trying to cross the border right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there."

I looked over to my right and saw another man with dark hair pushed back. He had a thick layer of dirt covering his face. He was in rags like me. I began to panic. I could not see Rourke anywhere.

"Damn you, Stormcloaks. Skyrim was fine until you came along. The Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn't been looking for you, I could've stolen that horse and be halfway to Hammerfell." The dark haired man said to the blond. He turned and looked at me. "You and me-we shouldn't be here. It's these Stormcloaks the Empire wants."

"We're all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief." Said the blond.

"Shut up back there!" shouted the carriage driver.

"And what's wrong with him, huh?" the dark haired man said looking at the man sitting to the right of me. The man had a cloth covering his mouth.

"Watch your tongue. You're speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King." The blond said harshly.

"Ulfric? Jarl of Windhelm? You're the leader of the rebellion. But if they've captured you…oh gods. Where are they taking us?" the dark haired man asked in a panic.

"I don't know where we're going, but Sovngarde awaits." The blond said quietly.

"No, this can't be happening. This isn't happening." The dark haired man became more panicked.

"Hey, what village are you from horse thief?" the blond asked.

"Why do you care?"

"A Nord's last thoughts should be of home."

"Rorikstead. I'm…I'm from Rorikstead." The dark haired man said somewhat calmly.

The carriage went through the gate in the wall of a town. There were stone towers and wooden buildings. It seemed a peaceful place. Quiet.

"General Tullius, sir! The headsman is waiting!" the carriage driver shouted to a man on a horse to the right of the entrance.

"Good, let's get this over with." The man I assumed to be General Tullius said.

"Shor, Mara, Dibella, Kynareth, Akatosh, Divines, please help me." Said the dark haired man.

"Look at him, General Tullius, the military governor." The blond sneered. "It looks like the Thalmor are with him. Damn elves. I bet they had something to do with this." he grew quiet. "This is Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl from here. I wonder if Vilod is still making that mead with juniper berries mixed in." he let out a dry laugh. "Funny, when I was a boy, Imperial walls and towers use to make me feel so safe."

"Who are they, daddy? Where are they going?" I heard a young boy ask from behind me. I turned around to see a child sitting on the porch of a house.

"You need to go inside, little cub." Said the boy's father.

"Why? I want to watch the soldiers." The boy protested.

"Inside the house. Now." His father demanded.

"Yes papa." The boy said, defeated. He rose to his feet and went inside the house.

We continued for another minute before I saw it. The headsman standing right next to a stone block with a basket in front of it. The carriage began to slow.

"Whoa." Said the carriage driver, stopping the horses.

"Get these prisoners out of the carts. Move it!" said a stern woman.

"Why are we stopping?" the dark haired man asked in terror.

"Why do you think? End of the line." The blond said eerily calm. "Let's go. Shouldn't keep the gods waiting for us." We all rose to our feet.

"No! Wait! We're not rebels!" the dark haired man shouted in hopes of getting out.

"Face your death with some courage, thief." The blond said harshly.

"You've got to tell them! We weren't with you! This is a mistake!" he began to grow louder. We all were off the carriage and standing in a line in front of two soldiers. One male and one female.

"Step towards the block when we call your name. One at a time." Shouted the female soldier.

"Empire loves their damn lists." The blond said as he stood beside me. I began to look around again in hopes of seeing Rourke, but I could not find him.

"Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm." Said the male soldier. Ulfric began to walk over to the block.

"It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric." The blond said softly as Ulfric walked away.

"Ralof of Riverwood." The blond that rode in the carriage with me walked over to the block. "Lokir of Rorikstead." The dark haired man began to walk forward.

"No! I'm not a rebel! You can't do this!" he began to run away from the soldiers.

"Halt!" shouts the female.

"You're not going to kill me!"

"Archers!" she shouts. The archers draw their bow and release. Lokir falls to the ground, dead.

"Anyone else feel like running?" she asked.

"Wait. You there." The male addressed me. "Who are you?"

"Uh, um…my name is Yvera, that's all I know." I said softly.

"You picked a bad time to come home to Skyrim, kinsman." He said. I became confused. _I was not born here_, I thought. "Captain, what should we do? She's not on the list." He asked the woman next to him.

"Forget the list. She goes to the block." She said harshly.

"By your orders, Captain." He pauses. "I'm sorry. At least you'll die here, in your homeland. Follow the captain prisoner." I followed the captain as she led me where the other prisoners were standing. I looked around once again with a tiny shred of hope that I would find Rourke. I saw him, standing at the outside of the group of prisoners. He was looking down at his feet. His hair covered most of his face.

"Ulfric Stormcloak. Some here in Helgen call you a hero. But a hero doesn't use a power like the Voice to murder his king and usurp his throne." General Tullius said to Ulfric. Ulfric just let out a grunt from behind the cloth covering his mouth. "You started this war, plunged Skyrim into chaos, and now the Empire is going to put you down and restore the peace."

There was a roar in the distance; it was an animal I've never heard before.

"What was that?" asked the soldier who called me to the block.

"It's nothing. Carry on." ordered General Tullius.

"Yes, General Tullius. Give them their last rights." said the female soldier to the priest next to her.

"As we commend your souls to Aetherius, blessings of the Eight Divines upon you for you are the salt and earth of Nirn, our beloved—"

"For the love of Talos, shut up and let's get this over with." interrupted one of the rebels as he walked to the block.

"As you wish." said the priest.

"Come on! I haven't got all morning." the Imperial soldier forced the rebel to kneel down at the block. "My ancestors are smiling at me Imperials. Can you say the same?" the rebel sneered. The headsman raised his blade and brought it down, severing the head off the rebel soldier.

"You Imperial bastards!" I heard a female shout within the group of prisoners.

"Justice!" I heard a male shout in the group of on-lookers.

"Death to the Stormcloaks." said a female harshly.

"As fearless in death as he was in life." said Ralof regarding his fallen comrade.

"Next! The Nord in the rags!" the Captain shouted, pointing at me. The roar echoed again, this time louder.

"There it is again, did you hear that?" asked the male Imperial soldier.

"I said, next prisoner!" she demanded.

"To the block prisoner. Nice and easy."

I walked slowly to the block. I kneeled next to the lifeless body of the rebel. My head rest on the stone cold block. Just as the headsman was getting ready, a creature appeared out of the mountains.

"What in Oblivion is that?!" I heard the voice of General Tullius exclaim.

"Sentries, what do you see?" the Captain asked.

"It's in the clouds!" a soldier shouted.

"Dragon!" a female shouted.

Right as the headsman raised his blade the dragon landed on the tower. The headsman toppled over onto the ground. The dragon sent out yet another roar, this time the sky grew dark; rocks fell from the sky and crashed down to the ground, shattering.

"Guards, get the townspeople to safety!" General Tullius ordered.

"Hey, kinsman! Get up! The gods won't give us another chance!" I heard Ralof shout towards me. I struggled to get to my feet. "This way!" he shouted as he ran to a tower in front of us. I looked around for Rourke. He was on the ground, motionless. I ran over to him.

"Rourke! Rourke!" I shouted as I shook his body. I felt the tears well up in the corners of my eyes. "Please get up…" I said softly. I heard him groan. "Get up!" I shouted. He shook his head as he came to.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"No time! Come with me!" I exclaimed.

He rose to his feet and ran to where Ralof had gone. We both made it into the tower and Ralof shut the door behind us. Two rebel soldiers were lying in a pool of their own blood. Ulfric was standing by the door.

"Jarl Ulfric, what is that thing? Could the legends be true?" Ralof asked.

"Legends don't burn down villages." he said simply. "We need to move. NOW!" he shouted.

"Up through the tower, let's go!" Ralof told us.

He ran up the stairs and we followed behind. There was another Stormcloak kneeling by some boulders trying to move them.

"If we could just move some of these—" He started before the dragon burst through the wall, knocking him over. The dragon let out a fiery breath, burning the soldier before our eyes. I was in shock. The dragon flew away just as quickly as he arrived. Ralof walked over to the now gaping hole in the stone tower.

"See the inn on the other side?" He pointed outside the hole. We walked over and saw the inn, a hole burned through the roof. "Jump through the roof and get going!" he shouted. Rourke jumped without thinking. I was hesitant before jumping.

"Yvera, you need to jump!" Rourke shouted. "If you want to live, JUMP!"

Without another thought I followed Rourke and jumped out the hole. I cried out in pain when I had landed. We ran through the burning building before finding a hole in the floor leading to the ground. We fell through the hole before running out of the inn. Running out of the inn I saw the Imperial soldier that sent me to the block. He had his sword in his hand with an older man beside him.

"Haming, you need to get over here. Now!" he shouted. The young boy I saw when we first arrived in Helgen ran over to the Imperial soldier. "That a boy, you're doing great." he said. He turned and saw me. "Still alive prisoner? Keep close to me if you want to stay that way. Gunnar, take care of the boy. I need to find General Tullius and join the defense." the soldier said. The dragon landed on the ground and let out another fiery breath. We all avoided getting hit by the deadly flames. Again, the dragon flew off.

"Gods guide you, Hadvar." the older man said. We ran towards an alleyway between two buildings. We ran down a small set of a couple steps.

"Stay close to the wall!" Hadvar shouted as the dragon landed on the top of the wall. We all pressed our backs against the wall. As soon as the dragon took off Hadvar shouted, "Quickly, follow me!" We ran out of the alleyway and into what was a roadway. Bodies were thrown everywhere. Each in their own pool of blood. "It's you and me, prisoners!" Hadvar shouted as we continued to a building that seemed untouched by the attack. Ralof appeared out of the rubble. "Ralof! You damned traitor. Out of my way!" Hadvar barked.

"We're escaping, Hadvar. You're not stopping us this time!" Ralof shouted.

"Fine. I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovngarde!" Hadvar yelled as he ran to the door furthest from us.

"You! Come on; into the keep!" Ralof said. I stopped for a moment when Rourke pulled me to follow Ralof. We entered the keep right behind Ralof. He was kneeling beside yet another fallen comrade. "We'll meet again in Sovngarde, brother." he says softly. "Looks like we're the only ones who made it." he said with a shortness of breath. "That thing was a dragon. No doubt. Just like in the children's stories and the legends. The Harbingers of the End Times." he says in shock. "We better get moving. Come here. Let me see if I can get those bindings off." Rourke and I walk over to him. Ralof pulls out a dagger and cuts the ropes off both of our hands. I rub my wrists. "There you go. You may as well take Gunjar's gear. He won't be needing it anymore." He says to Rourke. I watched as Rourke removed the armor off of the dead body and puts it on himself. He took the axe he found on the body and gripped it tightly in his hand. To my right was an iron gate that was locked and to the left was a wooden gate that could not be opened from our side.

"Yvera, don't you know at little bit of magic?" Rourke asked. I nodded in response. "Well we may need your help if things go bad. How many spells do you know?" he asked.

"Uhm…yeah, a little though." I said softly.

"It'll have to do for now." he said.

"It's the Imperials! Take cover!" Ralof say quietly. We all crouched down by the wooden gate.

"Get this gate open!" I heard the Imperial captain's voice. The gate opened up and the captain plus another soldier run through. "Stormcloaks!" the captain shouted as she drew her sword.

I backed away quickly as I felt the tingling sensation in my hand. My hand rose up and shot of fire at any vulnerable spot at the captain. The captain lunged at me; her sword ready to strike. Rourke came up behind her a dug the axe in the side of her neck. She dropped instantly; dead. I looked around for the other Imperial soldier; he was already on the ground dead.

"One of these Imperial's must have the key. Check to make sure." I heard Ralof say.

I kneeled by the captain to search for any type of key while Rourke went over to the other soldier to check. I found a key in a small pouch on the side of the captain's armor.

"I've got a key!" I shouted.

"Good, check to see if it opens that door." Ralof said.

I ran over to the iron gate and shoved the key into the lock. I turned the key and it clicked. Rourke ran up behind me and pulled open the gate. The three of us ran through the open door and ran down the stairs to our left. We heard the dragon roar once again and a part of the tower came crumbling down; crushing two soldiers.

"Damn, that dragon doesn't give up easily." I heard Ralof say.

We ran through a door to our left. Barrels were everywhere, pheasants and rabbits hung from the ceiling. There were unfamiliar voices coming from deeper in the room. We walked slowly and quietly until we were spotted by a heavily armored soldier and a lightly armored soldier standing by a group of barrels; both Imperials. They drew their swords and charged at us. I froze in fear as I watched Ralof and Rourke defeat the two soldiers. The soldiers lay dead in their own bloodied mess. I looked over at Rourke and blood soaked his rags.

"Check these barrels for some potions." Ralof said.

I walked over to the barrels the Imperial soldiers were standing by. I cracked open the lid and found four red potions, two green, and one blue. I handed them over to Rourke and he put them in his satchel. Ralof led us out the door and we ran down yet another set of stairs. There was a commotion going on from a room at the bottom of the stairs.

"Troll's blood, it's a torture room!" Ralof exclaimed in front of us.

He drew his two war axes and ran into the room. Rourke followed behind him. I drew up may hand ready to attack when I walked into the room. Two Stormcloaks were on the ground, dead. The torturers were already dead by the time I walked into the room. There were three cages in the room; a body was in the center cage.

"Wait, it looks like there's something in this cage!" Ralof exclaimed. "It's locked. See if you can get it open with some picks. We might need that gold once we get out." He handed quite a few lockpicks. I walked over to the door and fiddled with the lock until it opened. I walked into the cage and grabbed the few gold coins on the ground. I noticed the body had robes on. _These rags are getting quite uncomfortable_, I thought to myself. I took the robes off the body.

"What are you doing with that?" I heard Rourke ask from behind me.

"Hey, you got better clothes than me. I don't want to be stuck in these rags a moment longer." I said. I stripped off my rags and quickly put on the robes. I put the gold coins in the satchel on the robes.

We ran through a hallway full of cages until we got to an underground river. We ran to the left following the river until we ran into more Imperial soldiers. I mustered up the courage to finally fight. I watched as I burned one of the soldiers alive. He toppled over; dead. I looked around and all the other soldiers are dead. I searched the soldier I had killed and found a long bow and some arrows. I took them and strung the quiver on my back. I held the bow tightly in my hand. I searched the other bodies and found a few more arrows. We left the room within the cave and found a raised bridge. I pulled the lever and watched as the bridge fell. We all ran across and found yet another underground river. The ground began to rumble. I turned around and watch as the ceiling collapsed and crushed the bridge.

"No going back that way now. Looks like we'll have to find another way out." Ralof said.

We continued running through the cave and stopped when we found evidence of spiders. I drew an arrow for my bow and pulled back. I saw a large spider moving and released the arrow. It struck the spider, killing it instantly. Three more spiders appeared and I drew yet another arrow and killed another. Rourke and Ralof killed the other two. We left the spider room and ran to yet another large room within the cave. I saw as Ralof crouched down.

"Hold up, there's a bear just ahead. See her?" he said quietly. I looked and saw a bear sleeping on the other side of the cave. "I'd rather not tangle with her right now. Let's sneak by and watch where you step. Or if you're feeling lucky." He handed me a few more arrows.

I drew an arrow and aimed it perfectly at the bear. Upon release I watched as the arrow flew through the cave, striking the bear. It cried out in pain as it was hit.

"Sneaking is overrated, huh?" I heard Ralof chuckle. We ran past the dead bear and saw the light. "That looks like the way out! I knew we'd make it!"

Running out of the cave we were blinding by the sunlight. We walked out into a chilly environment. I heard the roar of the dragon.

"Wait!" Ralof shouted. He ran over to a boulder and hid behind it. Rourke grabbed my hand and we crouched behind the rock with Ralof. Once the dragon disappeared we came out from behind the boulder. "There he goes. Looks like he's gone for good this time. No way to know if anyone else made it out alive. But this place is going to be swarming with Imperials soon enough. We'd better clear out of here. My sister, Gerdur, runs the mill in Riverwood, just up the road. I'm sure she'd help you out. It's probably best if we split up. Good luck. I wouldn't have made it without your help today." Ralof began to run down the stone path. I looked at Rourke and he looked at me. I had a strong feeling that this was only the beginning.


End file.
